Meet an "Islamaphobe"

I am against the purchase of American port by Dubai Ports World. I have a real problem with any Middle East company owning anything in America, quite frankly. Is it because I am a racist? No. It is based on what I have seen of the countries in the Middle East.

In my 38 years of life, here is what I know of the Middle East (and Middle Easterners) going back as far as I can remember:

OPEC
Iranian Hostage Crisis
Marine Barracks Bombing in Beirut
Lockerbie
Achille Lauro
Marine Col. Higgins
Kobar Towers


....and dozens upon dozens of images of Presidents being burned in effigy, and the American flag being burned, and crowds chanting "death to America". No, I'm not creating more links. If you haven't seen these same images over the past 38 years then you've been asleep. And if you can't think of other acts of violence perpetrated by MEs against Americans then you've been asleep in a bubble.

And what do we do? We send them money. Billions of dollars worth of aid every freakin' year. We send our military on humanitarian missions to help them during natural disasters....

And there are actually some people out there saying we need to prove to THEM we aren't bigots! That we need to prove that Americans do not hate everyone in the Middle East!?!?!?!

Puh-leez!

If anyone needs to prove they don't hate, it is the people in the Middle East.

And until they do, they can forget about ownership of anything in the US as far as I am concerned.

Adventures in Texturing

Well, I finally got around to putting the texture on the ceiling in the nursery. Lessons learned? A few:

1) Don't make a vaulted ceiling the first attempt at texturing.
2) Use a wall-to-wall drop cloth (I did). "Goobers" went everywhere.
3) Tape off and cover the walls (see #2).
4) Angled ceilings suck (refer to #1)
5) The mixing of the mud will go faster if you spend the money on a "beater" and a drill to fit it
6) Mike is truly a master and his site (and advice) are worth a heck of a lot more than what he charges.

It took me two hours to do the room (about 12 X 12)....and, man, was I sweatin' when I was done. I had to forego the use of the poles and do everything by hand and ladder due to the angled ceilings. It looks AWESOME!

Mrs. Puff was unimpressed........but my kids were.

Bauer/CTU Violate FISA?

Last night, CTU gets a voice recording of the terrorist who has stolen nerve gas and has threatened to use it to kill Americans. CTU springs into action and scans the "chatter on the NSA satellites" for a voice print match to determine the guy's plans.

Well, they get a match and listen in on a conversation that leads them to the person who will provide a chip to the terrorist. The chip will allow the terrorist to release the gas. This is CTU's one and only lead to the nerve gas.

I don't recall them getting a warrant first......

Granted this is fiction, but did CTU just violate FISA? It was effectively a wire tap without a warrant on a DOMESTIC (both phones on US soil) call.
If polled, how many 24 watchers (I am assuming the viewership cuts across the political spectrum) would say CTU did the right thing? What would Leahy/Kennedy/Biden/Reid/Dean say about such a scenario?

Just curious.

Popcorn Zen

Well, I've finally discovered the answer to the thought that has plagued since we moved into our current house in 2003: "I wonder how hard it is to remove the popcorn from ceiling."

No, not Orville's kind from the kids throwing it too high while trying to get it into their mouths. The kind that some idiot somewhere thought, "Hmmmm......cottage cheese....on the ceiling....yeah, baby!"

OK. I know why builders do it. It's cheap and it hides shoddy workmanship, but why a home buyer would elect to have it is beyond me. How much extra was it to get some other texture? One to two thousand? Over a 30 year loan. C'mon!

I've done a lot of research trying to find a different way to remove it....different from what every site and professional was telling me (spray it down with water, not too much, and then scrape it off). After concluding there was no other way and concluding that my wife was going to continue to nag me to do something about the poor paint job (last loser to paint the room got it all over the ceiling...and, no, it wasn't me) in kid-number-four-on-the-way's nursery, I picked up a scraper and a spray bottle and geared up for battle.

OK, she was pushing for spot touch ups but I didn't think it would like right and this inquiring mind just had to know.

Here are some things I learned:

1. If you house was built before the 70s, get your popcorn checked for asbestos before you start removal.
2. Has your ceiling been painted? If not, good times. If it has, good luck.
3. Get a good, wide taping knife (yep, taping knife) and a spray bottle.
4. Get everything out of the room. Take down curtains. Take down blinds. Put a waterproof tarp on the floor. If you don't want to have to repaint your walls, cover from the ceiling down about 2 feet. Close off the room. Wear goggles and a mask. Dust gets everywhere.
5. Work on about a 3X3 area at a time. Spray it down. Wait about 2-3 minutes. Spray it again. Wait about 2-3 minutes. Try scraping. If it doesn't come off (down to the drywall) fairly easily, spay it one more time. Then scrape. You may have to periodically spray parts of it that are stubborn.
6. I used a spray bottle. I've read some articles that recommend using a garden sprayer, but I'd worry about getting it too wet as well as having a lot of water under foot (which mixed with scraped popcorn would make an even bigger mess).
7. Always scrape in the same direction as the tape. If you scrape perpendicular, you'll ruin the tape. Also, be careful not to get the tape too wet.
8. As you do more and more, you'll be able to scrape down to the drywall to the point that you won't have to do major sanding to get the ceiling nice and smooth.
9. Have two enthusiastic 6 year old boys who share your hatred of popcorn ceilings and want to climb up the ladder (and wear goggles and a mask) and do some scraping. (Practice saying in a calm, encouraging voice every few seconds, "Hold the scraper flat, buddy, you're tearing the drywall" prior to bringing them into the fray.)
10. When you are ready to apply your new texture, check out www.drywallschool.com. The majority of the information is free, but if you want to do some new texture on your ceiling you'll have to pay $10 to get the instructions. I did. It was worth it. I start the retexture (crows foot) this weekend.

One room down. Ahhhhh, non-popcorn ceiling bliss.

And as a walk through my house, the victorious popcorn-ceiling slayer, I look above me to the popcorn ceilings that remain and say ever so softly, "Your days are numbered."